The session ended at half past two.
Not dramatically. That was the thing nobody told you about the end of long things, how ordinary the actual moment of ending was. The presiding officer said the formal words, the words that meant it was done and in the record and could not be undone, and then she gathered her papers and the room began to do what rooms did after formal sessions, people standing, low voices, the shuffle of chairs and documents being collected.
Vaelor signed the confirmation copy.
Maren took it from him and checked it with the focused efficiency of someone who had been checking documents for years and did not stop doing it correctly just because the hardest part was over. She nodded once. It was right. It was done.
Aelara stood near the twins.
